Work And Play The Time Away June 28, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Bath , 1 comment so farThe time has seemed to fly by here in Bath. The other day we spent all day “working” (answering the phone/ looking after guests). You know, watching movies, eating Ice Cream, and playing cards with their youngest daughter. Claudia, their youngest, is such a joy to play cards with since whenever she is bluffing or cheating she bursts into uncontrollable laughter(which is contagious by the way). We have learned some new card games such as 3 Card Brag. Who would have known work could be this not workie.
One of their cats, Pepper, is expecting and is very round and whiny (maybe she’ll produce little Peppers before we leave). Also, the cat that was hit by the car is doing much better and is constantly meowing for attention.
- Image via Wikipedia
We accompanied the family to Oxford, where their oldest daughter attended college. They went there for her graduation; we tagged along to see the really old city. It was quite interesting considering that a lot of the buildings look like churches, but they are actually all schools. It looks as though academics has taken over this Georgian city! We wandered around and found a nice grassy area in the gardens of Christ Church.
The church actually looks more like a college than most of the colleges do. It is really old and very well kept. This church is famous for having employed both the author of Alice In Wonderland, Charles Dodgson, and Alice Lyndell’s father (although it is a bit ironic that a famous Pedophile would be employed by a church and they would advertise it with a sign in their garden).
We’ve had a great time in Bath with our host family and have learned many things “British”. Unfortunately we’re moving on to the Netherlands on Wednesday where we’ll stay with Minas, a friend of Chris’ father after making a stop in Amsterdam. We’re going to miss our new friends, but moving on is good since it means new places and new people! Exciting!
Day Trip To Wells June 6, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Bath , add a commentYesterday we went with our host, Rob, to Wells, a town south of Bath. We also accompanied him to some reclamation stores in that area. We also drove through Glastonbury which is an interesting town to say the least.
Well’s cathedral was lovely. There’s a cathedral that is the biggest one I have ever seen! You could probably fit Notre Dom in the entrance hall. Next to the cathedral there is the Bishop’s Palace. It was beautiful but it makes me wonder why the Bishop would need a mote and huge walls with slits in them for firing a weapon. Inside the Palace walls there is a green space that two men were playing Crochet.
We tried Tiffin yesterday for the first time (I don’t remember ever having it before). It was delicious! We bought it right outside the Cathedral where there were many stalls selling locally made goods.
Rob was looking for six somethings that are interesting to make the legs to the island unit that is going into their kitchen, so we all basically went through tons of reclaimed items, imagining what they could become. At one reclamation shop there was an old CCCP (Soviet) Army tank that we had to take pictures with using chris’ phone (we’d forgotten our cameras ). There were also many other decommissioned Army effects such as the shells of missiles and funny little armored cars. A different place had nearly enough parts of different churches to make a whole new one. Pews and all. It was very interesting to see!
Driving through Glastonbury is a lot funner than most places. The residents there have used the fact that their town is thought to have once been Avalon, home of King Author, so they dress the part and set up shops with funny names (such as Lancelot’s Windows and Doors). They dress like they were extras in the Harry Potter movies with the cone-shaped hats with stars on them and robes. They have really found their niche!
Welcome to Venice! April 8, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Venice , add a commentVenice is so not an island but a town built on a sandbar. It is quite nice though, today we walked through probably half of the city on our way to Saint Mark’s Square. Despite knowing our initial goal when we set out, we still spent about 2 hours getting there, wandering through alley-like streets and through streets lined with shops while we followed signs to the square.
We’re staying in a hotel across the water on the mainland but it’s only a short bus ride across the bridge to the city proper and there are water busses (boats) running around the island and through its Grand Canal. We arrived in Venice and decided to walk to Saint Mark’s Square because Tiff had been there before and said that it was a great place to see.
During our walk, we crossed many picturesque waterways crisscrossing the city and thoroughly occupied with gondolas and other boats. We finally stopped to have lunch at a pasta shop and pizzeria just off the Grand Canal where I had pasta with mushrooms and Tiff had lasagna, both were fantastic and we left very satisfied with the food but disappointed with the mediocre service.
Along the path from lunch to St. Mark’s, we passed through a couple of different streets filled with shops on both sides and I think I could go another month without seeing another of the masks, despite their intricacy and their occasional outlandishness. There were masks reminiscent of the black plague, cyborg masks, and the traditional opera mask.
On one of these streets, there was a bridge over a canal that was also covered in shops, all the way over the bridge. The shops were, alas, the same type of shops along the rest of the street. Farther through the day, we saw shops selling blank books with custom leather bindings that were very gorgeous.
Upon reaching St. Mark’s Square, the first thing I noticed wasn’t St. Mark’s but the large bell tower built in the same square. Apparently it has been rebuilt no less than 3 times since its original construction because of lightning strikes destroying parts, cracks running up the entire tower, and more.
The church was a large and gorgeous building covered with intricate carvings and paintings. The square was very open and filled with people and more shops. The shops around the square were more clothes shops, jewelry shops, and even a Faberge store; however, we didn’t see a Faberge egg on display there.
After wandering the square, we had some gelato while wandering up and down the water looking at the great old buildings, enjoying our gelato, and watching the fake purses avoiding the Police. We’ve decided that those men resemble rats, they scatter when they are trying to sell the bags but they group up to run away from the police; it’s a thoroughly entertaining dance to watch.
Out on the Town March 29, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Strasbourg , add a comment
This morning we walked around Strasbourg a bit before arriving at the Cathedral, Notre Dame of Strasbourg. The Cathedral was fantastic but we decided not to pay to climb the steps up the bell-tower; however, there is a fantastic astronomical clock in one corner of the church that is a must see for visitors to Strasbourg.
The central part of the cathedral was large and airy, plenty of space for the chairs in the middle and surrounded by hallways with beautiful stained-glass windows along the exterior walls. Additionally, as you travel back through the church, there are several different places reserved for prayer so that parishioners can pray in peace while the tourists visit the rest of the church.
After exploring the Cathedral thoroughly, we wandered around the square surrounding the church, encountering 2 museums, one of which refuses entry without an appointment! Anyway, we decided not to visit the museums because they didn’t look to fantastic and we’d have to pay to look at things like vases on columns.
Finally, we settled on having a cup of tea in front of the Cathedral at a small café looking at the front of the Cathedral. After leaving the Cathedral, we walked down the Ill River for a while, enjoying the scenery and buildings; we saw several buildings which, unbeknownst to us at the time, have histories over a thousand years long.
Among the buildings along the Ill, we saw the courthouse, national library, and more.
We finally found a gorgeous sun-filled park to relax a bit and decide on the next thing to do. After much thought and deliberation, we headed back to Austin’s flat at the same time he was arriving and we decided to take a cruise on the waterways of Strasbourg together.
We followed the boat through Strasbourg to find where it docks where we bought tickets and got aboard. The boat was a glass-covered boat allowing us to see out in all directions except down. While riding aboard the boat, we each got a pair of headphones to listen to a commentary about Strasbourg’s history and about the buildings we were passing by and we realized that Strasbourg has had a pretty funny past, there are all sorts of strange and outright hilarious events through the city’s history.
On the boat, we passed the EU Parliament by boat; we passed through a lock, and even saw a wall that was built across the river to preclude attacks from that direction, in addition to flooding an area near the town, protecting that side as well. We also saw what used to be a prison, has gone through several iterations and is now a school of business administration.
Apparently, in Strasbourg, the half-timber houses are considered more of furniture than buildings because they are easily replaceable. While I found this interesting, it made me wonder if all buildings that would be above furniture on the chain are made of stone or brick because there are a lot of half-timber buildings in the city.
